The Impact of Gadget Use on Junior High School Students’ Reading Interest

Abstract

This study aims to describe the influence of gadget use on students’ reading interest and to measure the extent of this influence among grade VIII students of SMP Negeri 3 Palu. The research employed a quantitative descriptive design with a sample of 84 students selected through a simple random sampling technique. Data were collected using questionnaires, observations, and interviews, and analyzed through simple linear regression, F test, and coefficient of determination. The findings showed that gadget use had a positive and significant effect on students’ reading interest. This was evidenced by the F-count value of 15.504 which exceeded the F-table value of 3.96, and the significance value of 0.001 which was smaller than 0.05. Furthermore, the determination coefficient analysis indicated that gadget use contributed 15.9% to students’ reading interest, while the remaining 84.1% was influenced by other factors. These results suggest that gadgets can serve as a supportive tool for improving reading interest when utilized wisely for educational purposes, particularly in accessing information and digital learning resources. However, uncontrolled or excessive use may divert students’ attention from developing consistent reading habits. Therefore, collaboration between teachers and parents is needed to supervise and direct students’ gadget use so that its benefits can be optimized to strengthen literacy development.